A Homily for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost

+ In the Epistle of this Holy Mass Saint Paul insists to the Corinthians that the gospel he preached to them was the same Gospel he himself had received: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the eleven.” The Latin text “Tradidi enim vobis in primis, quod et accepi,” is sometimes abbreviated to “Tradidi quod et accepi,” – I handed on to you what I received.

This fidelity to revealed truth is of the essence of the Catholic faith. Neither we as baptised Catholics, nor those of us in monastic vows or ordained ministry, have any right to change, distort or dilute the faith that has been handed on to us from the apostles. The content of the Catholic faith does not depend upon the personality or subjective preference of individuals, no matter what authority they hold. Parents, priests and pontiffs are all called to be faithful custodians of the tradition handed on to us, each according to the demands of their specific vocation.
 
It may profit us to reflect a little further on the nature of the Church’s Tradition – something which is often poorly understood in our times.
 
The first thing we must assert, as Saint Paul teaches us this morning, is that Tradition is something received (ultimately from Christ) and is faithfully handed on by the Church. As already noted, is an objective reality. It does not depend on my opinion or your interpretation, no matter whom we are.
 
The second thing to note is that the Tradition of the Church is living, indeed it is the very presence of Christ living and acting in His Church in our day. God speaks to us and teaches us in His Word handed on in Tradition (let us be clear that the Sacred Scriptures are a uniquely privileged, inspired fruit of the Church’s living Tradition).  Our Lord continues His saving work in us and on us through the Sacraments handed on in Tradition. The Word of God may not be changed or diluted by passing generations or by any positivistic act of authority, nor may the sacraments be set aside or replaced. We are Catholic in so far as we strive to be faithful to them.
 
But the living Tradition of the Church does include our development of the understanding of these divine treasures in theological reflection, and of our celebration of them in the Sacred Liturgy. Indeed, the Church teaches that the Sacred Liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy and living Tradition” (CCC 1124), no doubt because in the liturgy the Word of God lives and breathes in the proclamation of Sacred Scripture and in the very celebration and power of the sacraments.
 
Thus, the liturgy is utterly traditional: it is faithfully handed on to us by the Church from Christ, enriched by the fruit of centuries of further understanding of the mysteries it celebrates. This does not mean that the liturgy can be rigidly fixed at a certain date in history (1911, 1954, 1962, 1970, etc.) before or after which everything is anathema. No, the liturgical tradition of the Church is itself living, it develops, following the same principles of theological development outlined by St Vincent of Lerins and St John Henry Newman. Put simply, the liturgy develops in continuity with the past, and without rupture, for if there is rupture that which has been faithfully handed down by the Church to us is lost.
 
The Church in our day is diseased with a subjectivism, relativism and positivism whereby the liturgical and doctrinal Tradition which has been handed on to us is frequently discarded and an a la carte Catholicism is constructed by individuals, or even proposed by authorities, which, rather than being a fresh and fruitful development of Tradition, reeks of rupture. Saint Paul had words for such persons: “If we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.” (1 Gal. 8)
 
Faced with this situation, we must be ever more faithful, ever more charitable, ever more apostolic. Indeed, at the end of the chapter from which this morning’s Epistle is drawn, Saint Paul exhorts the Corinthians: “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.”
 
As we worship at His altar this morning, confident that our labour is not in vain, let us beg Almighty God for the grace to persevere in these dispositions, that we too, in all humility, may be able to make the words “Tradidi quod et accepi” our own. +

---